Potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder. Potbelly stove from a gas cylinder: overview of horizontal and vertical designs Potbelly stove from a gas cylinder for pellets drawings

A stove is a necessary and useful device, which is most often used for heating residential premises or outbuildings, cooking and other purposes. Despite the wide range of models that can be purchased today, many people prefer to make them with their own hands.

For these purposes, you can use large barrels or sheet material, but gas cylinders are especially popular, since their use as a base can significantly simplify the process. The main types of stoves that can be made in this way will be discussed in this article.

Types of cylinder stoves

As already mentioned, you can make ovens of various types yourself; all the features of the most popular and interesting options will be discussed below:

The potbelly stove is an emergency-reserve type stove; it is one of the most popular and recognizable varieties. It is distinguished by its multifunctionality and versatility; depending on the volume used for the manufacture of the cylinder, it can be used both in city apartments and in country buildings. The only significant drawback is the short service life; the potbelly stove cannot function continuously, since the thin metal of its base is subject to gradual burnout. However, in the event of a sudden power outage, it can become the main assistant for warming up the room.
It is more complicated to manufacture than a standard potbelly stove; much more financial resources will also have to be spent on this process. However, this option still enjoys continued popularity, which is due to the ability to heat sheds, garages, workshops and other non-residential premises without the need to use expensive fuels. With such visible advantages, there is no mass production of this variety in the factory, since it is banned by fire services. The main distinguishing feature will be the presence of a special fuel tank into which oil is added.
Bubafonya is one of the most popular options for long-burning stoves. This is easily explained by the fact that its service life is much longer than that of a standard potbelly stove, while the efficiency indicator is very high, and heat transfer will continue for another day. It was the combination of economy and efficiency that made bubafonya one of the leaders in its class.
The rocket stove is a very original option. Its production will require a significant investment of time, effort and financial resources, but the resulting device will be capable of not only heating the room, it can also be used as a couch. The rocket is the best option for people who, for some reason, do not want or cannot build a full-fledged brick oven, the consumption of materials for which is several times higher.

Potbelly stove from a gas cylinder

Choosing a base

As you know, most gas cylinders are different; the main criterion for their classification is volume. Consequently, it is precisely this characteristic that must be relied upon when choosing the basis for a future device; the main recommendations and nuances are given below:

A volume of 5 liters is not suitable as it will not be enough anyway for the manufacture of a functional stove that can perform its functions efficiently.
A volume of 12 liters will already be suitable for the manufacture of a universal device, which shows good performance in small spaces. Its power will be approximately 3 kW.
The volume of 27 liters allows us to make a stove that can also be used in small spaces and moved if necessary. The power of this option will be about 7 kW, but even this indicator may not be enough in some situations.
A volume of 50 liters is the most appropriate indicator, since it will ensure complete combustion of the fuel used. Such a cylinder will make a stove with a height of at least 85 cm; you can easily purchase it at specialized gas stations.

Another important criterion is the case material: You should use only those options that are made of solid metal, since composite alloys have too low heat resistance.

Do it yourself

Potbelly stove from a cylinder

Several types of potbelly stove can be made from a gas tank; below are instructions, following which will allow you to obtain a horizontal model:

Place the balloon used as a base in this way so that it is in a horizontal position corresponding to its final shape.
The top must be cut off, which will allow you to place a grate inside the structure.
The basis for the lattice will be ordinary reinforcement, the rod is bent in the shape of a snake. For fastening, it will be enough to fix it in the required place, and then weld it to the walls.
You need to draw a circle on a steel sheet, the diameter of which will be equal to the same size of the outer side of the tank.
The marked circle is cut out of the sheet with any suitable tool, after which several holes in the shape of rectangles must be marked on it. One will serve as a blower, and the other will supply heat to the fuel chamber. You can cut them out using a chisel or grinder; it is more convenient to use the second version of the tool.
The curtains are welded to the lid, after which you can begin installing the door, in most cases it is purchased in advance in the store.
The doors are additionally covered with asbestos cement cord along their entire contour, after which the entire structure can be welded to the main tank.
Now you can move to the back of the stove, where you need to cut a hole, the dimensions of which will be equal to the diameter of the pipe, it is necessary to remove smoke.
At the final stage, the chimney is welded to the hole made, a pipe of appropriate size and fairly thick walls is suitable as a basis for it. After completing this stage, the potbelly stove is ready for operation.

Bubafonya stove

Bubafoni are very popular today because they are long-burning stoves. They can be made from a variety of materials and devices, but using a gas tank for these purposes is easiest.

Below is a guide to help with this process:

The top part is cut off first gas cylinder.
To the part of the structure that will play the role of a cover, you need to weld clamps or stops, it will perform the function of fixing it and fastening it to the device body.
If the edges of the cut part are sharp, it is recommended to bend them inward to avoid accidental injuries. For these purposes, it is most convenient to use a sledgehammer.
The part that is the lid will also need to bend the edges, but, on the contrary, to the outside. This will allow you to achieve the tightest contact when closing the bubafoni.
Now special attention needs to be paid to the piston manufacturing process. To do this, you will need to prepare a metal pancake with a diameter smaller than that of the cylinder so that it can move freely inside it; pipe for supplying air to the lower chamber of the furnace; several pieces of metal for welding to the bottom surface of the pancake.
A hole should be made in the center of the metal pancake, the dimensions of which will be equal to the diameter of the selected pipe. Several metal elements are welded to its lower part so that when the piston is lowered, the pancake does not fit too tightly to the firewood, otherwise the required amount of air will not flow into the lower part of the bubafoni. It will be enough to have six segments that resemble rays directed from the hole in the center.
The pipe must be cut so that its length is about 6-10 cm, depending on the height of the tank. Then it is inserted into the hole in the center of the pancake and securely aligned with it; it is not necessary to ensure tightness: if there are gaps in the structure, they will additionally facilitate the flow of air into the oven.
In the wall of the cylinder, just below the level of the lid, it is necessary to cut a hole into which a pipe designed to remove smoke will then be inserted and welded. The recommended diameter is 1 cm, this figure will be quite enough to ensure normal traction. The length of the horizontal direction of the chimney pipe is about 40 cm, after which it rises upward, the minimum length in this area is 2-3 meters.

Furnace in production

A waste stove, or, as it is otherwise called, an oil garage stove, is also much more complex in design than a classic potbelly stove, but many prefer this particular variety, since it allows the use of used engine oil and other similar substances as the main fuel. essentially waste.

To make it, it is proposed to use the following algorithm of actions:

During operation, the gas cylinder must be kept exclusively in a vertical position. To do this, it is filled with water and half buried in the ground or fixed in a fairly narrow tray, but it must be heavy enough so that the tank does not overweigh it.
Make marks at the top of the balloon and cut it off. For these purposes, a grinder is used, and when a cut is formed, the water that was previously poured into the tank will begin to flow out. It is necessary to immediately stop the work process and wait until the liquid goes below the cut level, and then finally eliminate the upper part. It must be preserved, since in the future it will serve as a fuel tank.
At a distance of about 0.7-1 cm from the cut, it is necessary to make a round hole; it will be required for installing the chimney pipe. Its diameter should be equal to the same indicator as the prepared pipe with a total length of about 4 cm. It will need to be inserted into the hole and welded, while ensuring that the seams are kept tight.
A vertical pipe will be welded to the horizontal part of the chimney, the height of which is 3.5-4 meters.
Now the cylinder should be raised above the floor surface; for its convenient fixation, it is recommended to weld metal legs on the bottom. Similar measures are required to make a square-shaped hole, which will serve as a blower. It will also need to be equipped with a door, which you don’t have to make yourself, but can be purchased at the store. It will be needed to manually control the volume of air that will enter the oven.
The fuel compartment must be lowered to the bottom of the cylinder; it can easily be made from a pipe 7-10 cm high and about 1.5 cm in diameter. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that it is hermetically sealed at the bottom to eliminate the possibility of fuel leakage. This compartment will also need a lid; it can be made from ordinary sheet metal material, in which two round holes are made at the same stage. A corresponding pipe will need to be inserted and welded into the central hole with a diameter of 1 cm, and the second hole with a diameter of 0.5-0.7 cm will need to be placed closer to the edge; it will be needed to fix the movable cover.
The pipe leading from the built-in lid must be identical in length to the height of the gas tank. A round metal element with the same diameter as that of the main cylinder is welded to its upper end, which will give this mechanism a resemblance to a piston.
The entire piston structure is inserted inside the cylinder, at the same time it should be devoid of mobility, so the edges of the lid will be welded to the walls of the tank.
The final stage consists of pouring used oil into the appropriate compartment and conducting the first test of the furnace during production; this procedure is carried out exclusively on the street. If everything goes well, the structure can be brought indoors and connected to the chimney system, after which it can be used for its intended purpose.

Rocket stove

A rocket stove, which allows you to create a heated lounger, will be the last option considered. You can also make it yourself, detailed instructions are given below:

Initially, the bed is prepared; this process involves the design and construction of a wood frame. The shape and configuration are selected depending on individual preferences. It is best to use timber with a cross-section of 1x1 cm as the material; the frame should form cells with dimensions of 60x120 cm, and the area directly under the stove should have dimensions of 60x90 cm.
A tongue-and-groove board is used as a cladding material for the frame., the recommended thickness is approximately 0.5 cm.
All parts and structural elements made of wood, must be treated with a biocide and several times with a water-based emulsion.
A special type of cardboard, which is made from basalt fibers, is laid on the floor surface in the place where the rocket stove with a deck will be installed. The minimum layer thickness is 4 mm, all other parameters depend on the shape and size of the structure.
You will need to lay a sheet of roofing iron directly at the installation site of the stove. The size is selected in such a way that the sheet protrudes outward from the side of the firebox by about 2-3 cm.
The frame is transferred to its permanent place; it must be installed securely enough so that it does not wobble or sway. At a distance of 12-14 cm from the lounger, holes are made in the wall surface, which will be required for installing the chimney pipe.
Along the perimeter of the structure you need to install formwork, the height of which will be at least 0.5 cm. You will need to pour adobe into it and level the top surface, focusing on the sides of the formwork.
The drying process of the mixture will be long and will take about 2-3 weeks, during which time you can make the base for the stove. Initially, you will need to cut off the top of the gas tank to get a hole with a diameter of 20-22 cm.
A round piece of steel is installed in the resulting hole, and a second cut is made below, resulting in a cover with a thin sheet of steel about 0.5 cm wide around the perimeter.
At a distance of 2-2.5 cm from the welded steel, two round holes are made into which the bolts are securely screwed.
The lower part of the gas cylinder is cut off at a distance of 0.7 cm, after which a round hole is made in the bottom through which the riser will enter the tank. In this case, asbestos cord can be used as a gasket to ensure sealing.
After this, you will need to make through holes in the cylinder through the holes in the steel casing and determine the depth of the tank in order to understand the necessary parameters of the riser. A pipe with a diameter of 0.7-1 cm is suitable as a material for it.
A combustion tank is built into the blower and flame pipe at an angle of 45-60°, and the secondary air channel is separated. The riser itself is welded into the flame tube through a pre-made hole. The blower is equipped with a door for manual control of the supply of air volumes; tightness is not required.
At this stage, the entire structure must be processed heat-resistant type of lining.
Now you can make a shell; a pipe with a diameter of about 20 cm is suitable for this., a bottom with a thickness of at least 1.5 mm should be welded to it from below.
An additional layer of thermal insulation is applied to the formwork, and after it has completely dried, the combustion structure is mounted on top.
A hole must be made in the lower part of the shell through which it will be connected to the cleaning chamber. The material for the connecting channel is corrugated pipes that pass under the deck chair.
After installing all the components, you don’t have to wait for all the working solutions to harden and pour about five layers of sifted sand into the shell, moisten it and lightly moisten it. A layer of medium-fat clay is poured on top.
After completion of all work, installation of another formwork is required, but along the outer contour, it will also be filled with adobe.
Corrugated pipes under the deck at the junction with the stove elements should also be treated with adobe to improve the fixation of the structure. The covers and doors of all chambers are tightly tightened with bolts.
After 2-3 weeks, the adobe will dry and you can move on to simpler work: eliminating formwork, covering the structure with special solutions and installing additional board flooring. The features of decorative finishing will depend on the personal preferences of each person; after their completion, it will be possible to begin the first tests of the rocket stove.

Operating rules

In order for the process of operating stoves made from gas cylinders to be safe and not lead to negative consequences, you need to know and follow some general rules:

When used for kindling liquid fuels It is not allowed to add them to the stove during combustion.
The cylinder and individual elements of the furnace will actively heat up during operation Therefore, their direct contact with wood and other flammable surfaces is not allowed.
The chimney must be cleaned periodically, otherwise it will not function properly. It is best to carry out this procedure after each use of the oven.

The chimney must be cleaned periodically, otherwise it will not function properly.

It is recommended to start building the chimney not from the stove to the exit to the street, as is usually done, but, on the contrary. Moreover, it should be of a collapsible type, which will facilitate the mandatory cleaning process.
Complex stoves are used to heat very large rooms, made from several cylinders at once, but it is best to entrust this process to people who have already had such experience.
When choosing the type of furnace, you need to think in advance about the issue of fuel extraction. For example, if you have used oil, the appropriate type of stove will work well, but if you don’t have it, it’s better to install a bubafonya that runs on virtually any fuel.

A private house is usually heated by an autonomous heating system. But there is no need to heat outbuildings and garages around the clock, and at the same time it is impossible to do without heat completely, especially in winter in a garage when working on a car. You can temporarily heat a utility room or garage with an electric heater, but this solution leads to costs, since electricity today is an expensive resource.

But the option of a small stove running on solid fuel will not only be more economical, but also convenient, since a small home-made potbelly stove or rocket stove is completely energy-independent, compact and mobile. The easiest stove to manufacture is from a propane gas cylinder with a capacity of 50 liters, since it requires almost no seam welding.

Propane cylinders are made of thick steel, and a stove that has a gas cylinder as a body will burn out very, very slowly. To be successful, you need a welding machine and the skill of a welder, since high-quality workmanship and good welding of seam joints will be required. The welds are continuous and not intermittent, since the structure must be completely sealed; this is the main requirement for a potbelly stove.

Work and construction

About the design - it pleases with its simplicity. There are two doors: an ash pan, also known as a ash chamber, and a firebox. The flue pipe can be cut into the back or top of the cylinder body.

There are also few difficulties in the principle of operation: fuel is placed on the grate, set on fire and the metal cylinder is observed to quickly heat up. The property of metals to quickly heat up and just as quickly give off heat and cool down is known, so you will have to monitor the stove and periodically add firewood to the firebox. In terms of the efficiency of this unit, it is low, and you need a lot of firewood. But the potbelly stove eats any solid fuel and firewood - there are no whims, this is one of the advantages of this design. The omnivorous nature of potbelly beetles is a well-known fact; not only logs, peat and coal are suitable, but many types of household waste, paper and rags, carpentry waste, etc.

Two important points: first, metal stoves work much more efficiently if they are lined with bricks, and you can use ordinary ceramic bricks (not fireproof), and do the masonry by adding clay to the solution. A prerequisite is the presence of an air gap of 50 - 100 mm between the hot metal and the brickwork.

The second point is that in order to increase the heat transfer of a potbelly stove, the installation of the chimney should not be done vertically, but at an angle, and the length of the chimney should be increased by running it along the walls and ceiling. Such a broken chimney will contribute to more complete combustion of fuel, including small residues. To obtain an economizer, the outlet of the chimney pipe from the stove body is made vertical, as required by the rules of heating engineering, but then the pipe goes at an angle or in the form of broken segments. In this case, the hot flue gases will not be able to fly out into the street immediately, but will transfer almost all the heat into the room. Of course, such a stove with a chimney will be stationary.

Work on making a stove from a cylinder

First of all, the former propane cylinder is freed from gas residues, which are always present. Carefully unscrew the valve and direct the stream in the opposite direction. The gas flow is visible to the eye, and when it dries up, it is necessary to pour out the condensate from the cylinder - an extremely unpleasant substance with a pungent, unpleasant odor. By turning the container over and draining the condensate into an unnecessary container, and then disposing of it, you can get rid of unnecessary odor. Care should be taken to ensure that condensation does not get on the floor or furniture in the house, since it will be difficult to get rid of this smell. It is best to prepare the cylinder not indoors, but away from all buildings.

After releasing the cylinder, it is turned over again and filled with water under the neck in a vertical position. Water will displace the last remnants of the gas mixture. Then the cylinder is placed on its side and the water is drained. After this, the cylinder is completely safe and you can use electric or gas welding on it, as well as cutting with a grinder.

A potbelly stove made from a cylinder, just like all other models of potbelly stoves, can be vertical and horizontal. The second is considered the simplest, traditional and “technological” in execution.

Brief technological sequence for making a horizontal potbelly stove:

Cut off the cylinder cap. Tool - grinder
Make a hole for installing the chimney in the back or top of the housing. The diameter of the pipe can be in the range of 80 - 120 mm.
For the front wall of the stove you will need a metal sheet of thickness. At least 4 mm and large enough to cut a circle with a diameter equal to the diameter of the cylinder. For the blower, also known as the ash pan, and for the combustion chamber, two rectangular holes are cut in a circle using a grinder or a chisel. Cut out carefully to form the base for the doors. You can seal the combustion window by laying an asbestos cord from the inside along the contour of the hole. After welding the hinges to the cut out rectangles, doors are obtained.
Reinforcing bars bent like a snake can serve as a grate. The resulting grid is attached to the inner surface of the cylinder by welding - this is a simplified method. A little more complicated, but more practical for further operation would be to place the grate on the corners welded to the side sections of the cylinder.
Stove legs are a very important element. The legs can be made from a steel pipe; the diameter is sufficient: 32 - 50 mm. The legs can also be welded on the outside of the cylinder.
Lastly, a butt weld is made, connecting the cylinder and the front part of the stove with holes for the firebox and ash pan.
The stove will be ready after connecting the chimney made of a steel pipe. The first firebox will show the tightness of the structure. As a rule, with careful execution and good welding of the seams, the potbelly stove works correctly.

A vertical potbelly stove from a cylinder can be made in two ways. There are no fundamental differences with the horizontal version, except that legs are not required for vertical installation.

The first method: more difficult in cutting and welding, but more convenient in assembly work. The beginning of work is the same as when making a horizontal potbelly stove. Cut off the lid of the cylinder and install a grate made of steel reinforcement inside. Holes for the blower and combustion chambers are cut out in the side.
The second method: there is almost no need to cut metal, but assembling the stove is more difficult. The cover is not cut off, but a grate made of reinforcement is installed through a cut hole for the fire chamber. It is very inconvenient to work in such cramped conditions, but the stove is almost solid.

Making a rocket stove from a cylinder

Differences between potbelly stoves and jet stoves:

The rocket stove has higher efficiency. The reason is the special organization of the movement of hot flue gases, including carbon monoxide CO inside the furnace, in this case the cylinder. The trajectory of this movement is particularly long and complex, and the heat transfer is correspondingly higher. A rocket stove from the same 50-liter cylinder can heat a larger room compared to the bourgeois version.
The design of the rocket stove is complemented by an internal part - a square pipe, brought out from the bottom of a steel container. The pipe is not closed at the ends, and its outer part serves as a combustion chamber, and inside an open chimney channel is formed, through which heated air goes into the cylinder.
The chimney connection is made not at the top, but at the lower level of the structure, since the flow of hot flue gas, smoke and heated air will also go from top to bottom and will fill the cylinder completely.

A rocket stove is much more complex than a potbelly stove; additional components and parts will be required for it. Exhausting the chimney from below is more difficult, and installing a square pipe inside the cylinder and ensuring air flow in two levels, primary and secondary flows, adds to the complexity of manufacturing. It is easier to make rocket stoves from gas cylinders, since there is a ready-made sealed case made of thick steel, factory-made. Cutting will only be necessary to make holes for connecting the chimney and under the combustion chamber door.

The combustion of a rocket furnace is carried out as for long-burning furnaces, using the method of heating to a “warm pipe”. The first step is to add fast-burning light fuel (paper, straw, branches and leaves). When the chimney warms up, make a fuel fill from coal or firewood. Rocket stoves got their name partly because of their characteristics - if used incorrectly (very strong draft with an open ashpit), you can get a stream of fire from above and a sound reminiscent of the operation of a turbine or, as they say, the takeoff of a rocket.

The rocket stove requires a special approach, since it requires an experimental tincture for each type of fuel. To determine the combustion mode, at the beginning of the process, open the ash door completely and observe. As soon as the stove enters normal mode, it begins to “hum,” and the ash door begins to be gradually closed, reducing the air supply and draft. When the stove stops humming and rustles, the gap between the ash door and the body is left in a certain position.

A stove made from a gas cylinder will turn out to be more economical and efficient than manufacturing equal in complexity from other available materials. The shape of the gas cylinder itself will help. The quality of a stove is largely determined by its firebox. The ideal firebox in all respects is spherical. Considering that the firebox must have at least 2 openings - an inlet, for loading fuel and supplying air, and an outlet, for the release of exhaust gases into the chimney, the optimal shape of the firebox is not a very long and narrow cylinder with rounded ends, and that’s what the cylinder is. Its shape is chosen based on the need to maintain greater pressure with minimal metal consumption, but the result is the same.

What kind of stove can be made from a cylinder?

Since the shape of the firebox is optimized on the most general basis, then stoves made from cylinders can be very different - from flaming combustion to sophisticated designs, from which even an experienced heating engineer, as they say, turns his eyes back. This article examines several furnaces, arranged in increasing order of manufacturing complexity; their purpose is also taken into account:

for residential premises.
Heating systems for non-residential premises.
Summer cooking.
Universal small-sized portable emergency; stove just in case.

The need to minimize the cost of additional materials and the ability to make a stove with your own hands without complex tools and/or technological operations are also taken into account. Of course, a prerequisite is sufficient convenience and safety of use. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give recommendations on the legalization of homemade stoves: fire regulations for them are very strict. Here everyone needs to resolve the issue on the spot, as best they can. Or don’t decide at all: building stoves yourself is not prohibited anywhere, but possible consequences will fall entirely on the author/owner.

Note: the requirement of maximum simplicity and low cost does not apply to the rocket stove described at the end. However, this stove not only heats a large room using wood chips, but also allows you to get a real warm bed at home without building a brick stove. And the costs of materials and labor required are several times less.

Which cylinder should I look for?

First of all: the stove requires an all-metal cylinder. Composite explosion-proof ones are not suitable, they are not heat-resistant. A 5-liter household cylinder (item 1 in the figure) is definitely not suitable for the main part of the stove: it’s too small. The ratio of its surface to volume will give such heat loss that it will not be possible to completely burn any fuel. Making additional thermal insulation is not worth the trouble. The complexity of the work, the cost of materials, the dimensions and weight of the furnace will increase so much that all the work loses its meaning.

Note: The only possible use of a 5-liter cylinder is a fuel tank for a liquid fuel stove. Two of these will be discussed below.

12 and 27 liter cylinders (items 2 and 3) allow you to make a stove just in case, which can also be stored in the pantry of a city apartment. From a 12-liter one as a stove you can remove a thermal power of 2-3 kW, and from a 27-liter one – 5-7 kW.

The best preparation for the stove is the most common 50-liter propane cylinder with a diameter of 300 mm and a height of 850 mm (item 4). Its volume is already sufficient for efficient combustion of any fuel by any known method, and its weight and dimensions do not yet complicate the work. In addition, there are many such cylinders in use that are still in good working order, but have exhausted their service life according to the specifications; they can be bought inexpensively. Most of the stoves described below are made from just such cylinders.

Note: if you have a choice, you should use a cylinder with a valve rather than a valve. The valve makes an excellent stove power regulator by supplying air (air throttle).

As for the common 40-liter cylinders for industrial gases (item 5) with a caliber of 240 mm, they are poorly suited for the furnace: although the walls of thick durable metal will ensure the durability of the furnace, the cylinders themselves are too narrow, heavy and bulky. A good powerful stove, up to 100 kW or more, could be made from a 12- or 18-inch professional cylinder, but they are rare, expensive, and not every healthy man can shoulder such an empty one.

In principle, it would be possible to make camp stoves from small 2-10 liter industrial cylinders, but again, the metal is thick, durable, difficult to work with, and the stove itself will be too heavy. There are, however, in the population of small special balloons some exotic individuals that make excellent ones; We will talk about them later.

From simple to complex: balloon stove

You probably guessed even earlier that the simplest homemade stove from a gas cylinder is an emergency backup stove, 12 or 27 liters. You can use a 50-liter stove on it, but such a stove will no longer fit in a city pantry. A balloon potbelly stove will not be able to regularly heat several generations: the relatively thin metal of the body of a household cylinder will burn out. But it’s quite possible to heat a shed with it from time to time or to stay on it until it’s warm.

The design is extremely simple, see fig. Of the purchased components, you only need a firebox door or a monoblock from the furnace/blower chamber. Here, the theoretically optimal shape of a thick, curly cylinder works best: a cylinder potbelly stove does not need a grate with an ash pan, or any internal partitions. One thing that is necessary, like any potbelly stove, for good heat transfer is a horizontal chimney elbow made of a metal pipe with a length of 2-2.5 m.

Note: the chimney diameter of a 12-liter potbelly stove is 60 mm, a 27-liter stove is 80 mm, a 50-liter stove is 100-120 mm.

Balloon cooking

Gas cylinders make good grills. They also burn fuel, but these are no longer ovens, but culinary technological equipment, and quite a lot has been written about it. Therefore, we will not dwell further on gas-cylinder cooking. However, those interested, as they say, without leaving the cash register, to find out how to make a barbecue grill from a cylinder yourself, can watch the video:

About pyrolysis

In all of the following designs of cylinder stoves, pyrolysis is used to one degree or another - decomposition under the influence of high temperature of heavy organic compounds into light, volatile and flammable ones. Pyrolysis allows you to burn everything that, in principle, can burn, completely - down to carbon dioxide and water vapor. It is hardly possible to build a furnace with an efficiency of more than 70% without pyrolysis.

One of the main parameters of the pyrolysis process that must be taken into account when developing a furnace is the degree of its complexity. Simply put, this is the number of thermochemical reactions required to break the original complex and heavy molecules into those capable of burning to completion.

Pyrolysis of heavy flammable liquids (eg used motor oil) usually occurs in 2-3 stages. Wood fuel breaks down into easily combustible gases in a multi-stage process, and its complete pyrolysis requires 5-6 times more time than in a liquid fuel stove.

Since the exhaust gases move from the combustion source into the chimney under the influence of draft, pyrolysis ends at some distance from the firebox. For oil furnaces it is insignificant, about 10-15 cm, and in them pyrolysis can be combined in space with afterburning of pyrolysis gases. This condition is also true for coal stoves; volatile components of coal are released and disintegrate easily.

For complete pyrolysis of wood fuel, a gas-flame path length of about 1 m is required, and in its space it is necessary to distinguish, physically or implicitly, 3 zones (chambers): the firebox itself (gasifier), where the fuel burns and primary pyrolysis gases are released, a secondary gasifier (reactor ) with a supply of secondary air (secondary air), where pyrolysis is completely completed, and an afterburner, also with a secondary supply, where light gases are completely burned. These conditions must be taken into account when designing a wood stove.

Oil garage

The next most difficult, costly and labor-intensive method is from a balloon. This product is in great demand: you can heat a garage with such a stove for nothing, but there is no large-scale production, firemen prohibit it. Let us briefly recall the principle of its operation.

The oil burns quietly in the fuel tank; air is supplied here in doses using an air throttle. Here the heat of its combustion goes mainly to evaporation. The vapors rise into a vertical gasification column, or reactor. The reactor walls are perforated; outside air flows freely through the holes. the pressure in the entire furnace duct due to the draft of the chimney is lower than atmospheric.

The influx of air sharply increases the combustion of oil vapors, the temperature rises and pyrolysis begins. The pyrolysis products also begin to burn, causing the temperature to rise even more; in the middle part of the reactor it can reach 1300 degrees. At this temperature, nitrogen oxides are formed in noticeable quantities. Nitrogen oxidation is an endothermic reaction; it consumes a significant part of the fuel energy. However, nitrogen oxidation is useful in this case: it protects the furnace from overheating and explosion; The rate of formation of nitrogen oxides increases sharply with increasing temperature, according to a power law.

In the upper part of the reactor, the pyrolysis gases have almost burned out and there is a large excess of air. For complete afterburning in the column, it would have to be made several meters high and solid, without perforation, but then the nitrogen oxides would have passed the peak of their temperature instability and carried a noticeable share of the fuel energy into the pipe. To avoid this, gases from the reactor are released into an afterburner or afterburner.

The afterburner is divided approximately in half by an incomplete partition. Directly in front of it, pyrolysis gases burn out, maintaining a temperature that prevents the stabilization of nitrogen oxides. Behind the partition, all the oxygen in the air is already consumed, but the temperature here is still above 700 degrees. Now nitrogen oxides decompose with the release of energy back into nitrogen and oxygen, which is used for afterburning of the remaining pyrolysis gases; the energy release of these 2 processes maintains an approximately constant temperature in the afterburner.

The outlet to the chimney from the afterburner is located away from the partition, but it is enough to move it 15-20 cm away from it: thermochemical reactions in oil gases proceed quickly. Already completely burnt gases with a temperature of about 400 degrees go into the chimney, which ensures the efficiency of the furnace up to 80% and higher.

Typically, for furnaces used for exhaust from cylinders, a 50-liter propane bottle is used, cut in a ratio of 2:1, a third goes to the tank, and 2/3 to the afterburner, pos. 1 in Fig. From such a stove you can remove up to 30 kW of heat, but there are also plenty of emergencies with a serious outcome from them.

However, the magazine “Behind the Wheel” has long ago published the design of a garage furnace for working off with a power of 5-7 kW with a reservoir from a 5-liter cylinder. With such a low power, it was possible to combine the reactor with the afterburner into a single fully functional column:

In the lower cone of the column, the gases expand and the temperature drops to a value sufficient for pyrolysis, but almost eliminating nitrogen oxidation.
The perforation of the column is rare and the air flow through it is in slight excess.
In the upper cone, the gases are again retained for a time sufficient for complete combustion at a power of up to approximately 8 kW.

Nitrogen oxides are still formed in this furnace, but in negligible quantities, ensuring only automatic adjustment of the furnace mode. Operational power control is ensured by a rotary valve on the filling neck, which is also an air throttle.

This furnace can be significantly improved if there is a 10 or 12 liter industrial cylinder with a caliber of 150 mm and a height of 800/900 mm. These most often sell helium for inflating balloons. The profitability of the balloon business reaches 400%, but it most often takes place on temporary promotions, and the shelf life of a balloon filled with helium is limited and short: helium is the second record holder after hydrogen for diffusion speed. Therefore, completely serviceable helium cylinders are often sold cheaply.

Note: We do not recommend trying to run a helium business alone. All over the world, the flower and holiday mafia has firmly laid its paw on him, which, they say, even Cosa Nostra bypasses.

The design of a “helium-propane” 2-cylinder furnace for mining is shown in pos. 4. The thick walls of the cylinder distribute heat more evenly along its height, and the dome at the top and the narrow, 60-80 mm outlet into the chimney trap gases more effectively than a cone. Therefore, the perforation of the column and, accordingly, the air flow can be increased, obtaining a power of 10-12 kW. A maximum filling of 3.5 liters is enough for 3-4 hours of operation at full power.

At the same time, you can improve the fuel-air system. A standard cylinder valve is perfect for the throttle; you just need to extend it from the inside with a thin-walled steel tube, pos. 4a. You can simply screw it, as hard as you can, onto the part of the fitting protruding inward: the landing thread on it is tapered, so it will grab tightly.

It is better to make the filling fitting retractable and sliding in the neck, pos. 4b. Through the extended fitting, the stove is ignited and the fuel level is monitored. And when retracted, you can relatively safely add oil while the oven is running.

If the stove is constantly heated, then it is still advisable to remember about sappers, for whom the most dangerous is not the first, but some N-th mine. You can completely guarantee against an emergency with a stove by arranging a fuel supply from a separate feed tank or just a feeder, pos. 5. The height of the feeder should not exceed the maximum permissible fuel level in the tank (for a 5-liter tank this is approximately 2/3 of its height), and the feeder must be located at least 0.5 m from the stove. This way you can control the fuel level and refuel the stove as you please. In addition, the volume of the feeder can be any, only its height is limited, so it is quite possible to adapt a tank for it with refilling for a day or more.

"Long" stoves

In this case, this metaphor does not mean stoves made from recumbent industrial cylinders, but from ordinary 50-liter wood fuel stoves. In the long-term burning mode, wood undergoes pyrolysis, which greatly increases the efficiency and duration of heat transfer of stoves. The fuel in them (from dry sawdust and weeds to fragments of antique furniture) burns in a thin layer from the surface, which is why “long” stoves are sometimes called surface burning stoves.

Pyrolysis can occur either in a physically limited separate volume with subsequent combustion of the pyrolysis gases in an afterburner (these are furnaces with separate combustion), or the pyrogen gases immediately evaporate into a large, well-heated buffer chamber, where pyrolysis is completed and the pyrogen gases burn, these are co-combustion furnaces. To ensure high efficiency of both, it is highly desirable to heat the air entering the pyrolysis zone.

Bubafonya

An example of a long-burning furnace with separate combustion is the widely known one. In it, pyrolysis is concentrated under the “pancake” oppression. The diagram of the bubafoni device is shown in Fig. on right; As the fuel burns, the air duct with the pancake moves down. Much has already been written in detail about the operating principles and features of making bubafons, so we will only note the following:

The efficiency of a homemade bubafon can exceed 85%, and the duration of heat transfer from one load of fuel can reach a day.
Fuel for bubafoni needs to be room-dry with a humidity of up to 12%
It is permissible to add fuel to the bubafon while moving, but you cannot stop it; for maintenance/repair work you need to wait until the load is completely burned out.
The diameter of a 50-liter bottle of 300 mm is the minimum acceptable for bubafoni, so this stove must be made from it carefully and with a full understanding of the matter.

Bubafonya is a very economical stove and is well suited for heating garages and households. premises. Its design is simple and can be made at home. On the trail. rice. The main stages of the working process and dimensions are shown specifically for balloon bubafoni with a power of up to 5-6 kW. You just need to add that the gaps for air supply between the root (closest to the air duct) ends of the blades must be kept the same. When welding, instead of a jig, it is convenient to use suitable scraps of metal - pieces of rod, etc. The blades are first grabbed from the outside, and then, after removing the “conductors,” they are cooked to the end.

Note: The power of the bubafoni can be adjusted within a wide range, up to 10 times, but only manually, because The air throttle can only be installed at the upper end of the air duct, which is movable.

Slobozhanka

The Slobozhanka combined combustion furnace is even simpler in design and not inferior to the Bubafon in terms of parameters, diagram in Fig. on right. But it’s hardly worth making a slobozhanka from a balloon, because its minimum permissible diameter is about 500 mm and a balloon slobozhanka will not show good efficiency. In addition, all Slobozhanka stoves have very serious disadvantages:

Construction of the Slobozhanka stove

Extremely toxic gases accumulate under the roof of the stove; if you open the stove lid while moving, you can be poisoned to death.
There is no way to stop the Slobozhanka: if you close the throttle, the stove will pull air back through the chimney before choking. The pressure in the furnace will exceed atmospheric pressure and the toxic mixture will come out.
A hard, dense carbon deposit settles on the hearth or grate of the furnace, as in all “long” furnaces. After about a year (this is with good fuel), it grows to the mouth of the air duct, and it is difficult to knock it down and in easily accessible places.

A beautiful stranger

Most other homemade “long” stoves are no better, but more complicated than bubafoni. But there is one, almost purely pyrolysis stove (which is rare with wood), worthy of attention; its drawing is shown in Fig. In addition, this stove is also a hopper stove, which is also rare for wood stoves.

According to the principle of operation, the “stranger” is a simplified and truncated rocket stove, about which see next. section The retention of pyrogases in the afterburner under the hob is achieved by a diaphragm in the chimney, in exactly the same way as washers distribute coolant from the heating main to consumers. In the furnace business, such a constructive technique is rare, because any weakening of draft deteriorates the quality of the stove, but in this case the creators turned evil into good.

How? Power limitation: this is an exclusively summer-country cooking stove. It’s only enough for cooking, although you can squeeze several times more out of a 50-liter bottle. But the “stranger” works on any flammable garbage that can be pushed into the bunker; best of all - on fairly long chips, branches and dry stems, and it is much more economical, cheaper, simpler and lighter than the simplest brick slab. A foundation here, of course, is not needed, and a chimney with a height of 1.5-2 m is sufficient. The furnace is ignited from the top, through the neck of the gasifier or the loading hatch, using a flammable liquid.

The authors of the “stranger” cannot be denied knowledge of heating engineering, but with metal they were a little too clever: separate, and even removable gasifiers under the stoves and vault (the bottom-grate and partition in the original) are simply not needed here. The bottom can be the bottom of the 50-liter cylinder itself with the same 20-mm hole in the center, and the ash pan can be placed in its skirt. The outlet pipe of the gasifier is welded onto the dome of the cylinder, and the afterburner can be made from a piece of 300 mm pipe or sheet metal. In this case, it is quite possible to clean the stove through the fuel bunker and the gasifier outlet.

The crown of creation, or...

Emela never dreamed of it

The crown of balloon-stove creativity is, without a doubt, the rocket stove, see fig. But not only and not so much because doing it according to all the rules requires considerable (albeit uncomplicated) work, attention, ingenuity and accuracy. The main thing is that the rocket stove was purposely created for a 50-liter bottle, although most often it is made from a barrel. Not only the shape, but also the dimensions of a 50-liter propane cylinder are optimal for this stove: if a rocket from a barrel heats a horizontal section of the chimney in a stove bench (hog) up to 6 m long, then a balloon one, with a drum capacity four times smaller (see below for details) - up to 4 m. It’s unlikely that anyone will need a bed of this length, but the rocket hog can be made from thin-walled metal corrugation, laying it in a wave-like pattern in the mass of the bed. This, of course, will greatly increase both the efficiency of heating the room and the duration of heat transfer after heating, which can reach 12 hours.

The advantages of a rocket stove do not end there:

This is a stove that not only burns long, but also continuously burns. Additional fuel can be added while the furnace is running without restrictions.
The rocket stove can also be stopped and re-ignited without restrictions, and the ignition itself is simply simple: with paper, straw or shavings, like a fire.
The rocket stove breathes, just like .
Unlike brick stoves, a rocket stove is almost insensitive to long breaks in the firebox during the cold season.
Acceleration of a newly built or standing rocket stove is also simple: heating with paper, shavings or straw until the stove becomes warm to the touch.
The foundation of the rocket furnace is not needed: although its weight is under a ton, the support area is large and the load from the furnace on the floor does not exceed the permissible 250 kg per square meter according to SNiP. m.

The rocket stove has only 2 disadvantages, and, as they say, not fatal. Firstly, after kindling and, possibly, during the combustion process, it is necessary to set the stove mode by adjusting the air supply. If the stove makes a loud noise, this does not mean that it heats better. On the contrary, in this mode the gas-air path quickly becomes overgrown with carbon deposits; A correctly heated stove whispers quietly.

Secondly, the furnace power is regulated only by the amount of fuel loading. On-line power adjustment is generally impossible; Only the oven mode is set by air supply. While driving, you can not only add more fuel to increase power, but also pull out individual smoldering chips with tongs and immediately extinguish them, but this is a fire hazard.

Note: if “at a whisper” the stove seems to be heating weakly, it doesn’t matter, wait until the heat goes into the battery. The oven will release it later, cooling down after heating. If you need to quickly warm up, without thinking about fuel consumption yet, open the air until it starts to hum. It is not advisable to bring it to a loud roar; the carbon deposits inside will settle heavily.

How does a rocket work?

The design and principle of operation of a rocket stove. Here we recall the most important things.

The idea of a rocket furnace “on fingers” is as follows: imagine 2 physically connected processes with an efficiency of less than 100%; Let's say 90% each. For the 2nd to occur, the products of the 1st are needed. If they are launched simultaneously together, then due to mutual interference caused by entropy, the final efficiency will not exceed 65%. And if you “scroll” the 1st one first, save its results somewhere and then run the 2nd one on them, then the maximum overall efficiency will be slightly more than 80%.

In the most general sense, this is a universal law. It is thanks to him that the market economy, with all its cumbersome and gluttonous financial, administrative and power superstructures, turns out to be more effective than a natural economy. In a rocket stove, this law is technically implemented by the sequential inclusion of 2 stoves, one that generates heat and one that stores and heats.

The stove-generator consists of (see Fig.) a blower 1a with an air supply regulator (it sets the stove into operation), a fuel hopper 1b with a blind lid, a channel for supplying secondary air 1b to ensure complete combustion of the fuel, a flame pipe (fire pipe) 1d and internal or primary chimney - riser - 1d. The fire duct cannot be made too short or long: it must, on the one hand, heat the secondary air well, without which complete combustion of wood pyro-gases cannot be achieved. On the other hand, in a fire pipeline that is too long, the gases themselves will cool down and pyrolysis will not reach completion. The entire generating stove is securely wrapped in high-quality thermal insulation with the lowest possible heat capacity. All that is required of the primary furnace is to completely burn the fuel and release a stream of burnt hot gases from the riser.

Note: from an efficiency point of view, the optimal internal diameter of the riser is 70 mm. But if you want to achieve maximum furnace power, then you need a riser pipe with a diameter of 100 mm; then its shell needs not 150, but 200 mm. In this case, the efficiency decreases slightly. Further, when describing the technology for constructing the furnace, the dimensions are given for both cases.

The basis of the heating and storage part of the furnace is a high-capacity heat accumulator, but it is impossible to immediately release gases from the riser into it, their temperature is about 1000 degrees. There are good heat-resistant heat-storing materials, but they are very expensive, so the authors of the rocket stove used adobe as a storage device. Its heat capacity is enormous, but it is not heat resistant, so the secondary furnace must start with a high-grade to mid-grade heat converter, with temperatures up to 300 degrees. In addition, part of the primary heat must be released into the room immediately to compensate for current heat losses.

All these functions are performed by the furnace drum, and a 50-liter cylinder will be used for it. Gases from the riser enter under the cover of the drum 2a with the cooking surface 2b. The drum is thin-walled metal, it transfers heat well into the room. Having rolled under the lid, the gases enter the annular lowering of the drum between its tube 2g and the metal shell of the riser insulation 2v. Under the drum 2d is also metal; the metal does not allow flue gases into the insulation of the primary furnace.

The fact is that inexpensive and high-quality insulating materials are porous. Let flue gases flow into them - their pores will be drawn in, they will quickly become clogged with fumes, and all the insulation, and with it the efficiency of the furnace, will go down the drain. Adobe is also porous and is also very easily spoiled by carbon deposits. Therefore, the primary task when building a rocket stove is to ensure complete tightness of the gas and smoke duct.

In the drum, approximately 1/3 of its height from the top, the gases have already cooled enough to transfer their heat to the storage tank. From this height to the bottom, the lining (coating) of the entire stove with adobe begins. In the drum, the flue gases release, outward and into the storage tank, approximately half of the heat generated by the generator, but it is too early to transfer them to the heat exchanger: from the drum, through its outlet, 2e gases enter the secondary ash pan 3a with a sealed cleaning door 3b, and then into a long horizontal section of the chimney (hog) 4. From the hog, the gases that have almost completely given up heat to the adobe bed are released into a regular external chimney.

Why is a secondary ash pan needed? The gases coming out of the drum are not very hot and are already chemically neutral, because burned out to the end. But they still contain a small amount of solid suspension; mainly microparticles of mineral components of wood. And the hog, as mentioned above, is made of thin metal fiber and is also laid with twists, and this entire pipe is tightly walled up, so it is impossible to clean the hog. If you let dirty gases into it, the gap will soon become overgrown with soot and the bed will have to be broken. And in the secondary ash pan, the suspension settles. Once or twice a year it will have to be raked out, but the stove will now last for many years.

So now we know enough to start building a rocket stove. That's what we'll do.

Building a rocket

First, we need to stock up on 5 types of linings. However, their components are either inexpensive or just lying around, and it’s not difficult to prepare the mixtures yourself:

5a - the most common adobe: clay, thoroughly mixed with finely chopped straw and mixed with water until the dough becomes thick. Because the bed was not blown or saklya, except for its weight it is not loaded with anything and is located indoors, the quality of the clay does not matter much, you can take a self-dug gully one.
5b – main heat insulator. Medium-fat oven clay in half with crushed stone from light fireclay bricks ШЛ. Water until the dough becomes thick.
5v – heat-resistant, gas-tight, mechanically strong coating. Regular fireclay sand with oven clay 1:1 by volume. Water until it reaches the consistency of plasticine.
5g – self-dug sand, river or ravine, or very thin sandy loam. No washing or calcination is needed; just sift through a 3 mm sieve.
5d – medium-fat oven clay.

Some clarifications. It is better to introduce grass straw into adobe (meadow grass hay), with it the strength, which we do not really need, will be lower, but the heat capacity will also be greater. As for the recipes for making adobe, choose any suitable one; for a rocket stove it is not important. You can do it as in the video below, but we don’t need to build the entire house.

Video: making adobe

Mixture 5b requires crushed stone (not sand!) and only SHL. Other fireclays (ShM, ShV, etc.) are themselves good heat accumulators; it’s not for nothing that stove fireboxes are made from them. But in this case, a large heat capacity will only do harm. It is advisable to add more crushed stone, as long as the clay glues it together.

The purpose of the 5v mixture is to extend the life of the stove. All the metal structures in it are steel with a wall thickness of up to 3 mm, so it is necessary for the rocket to “fly” properly. But in the heat path, thin metal will quickly burn. However, by that time the 5B coating will have been fired, and over time, sections of steel pipes will spontaneously be replaced by ceramic ones. True, then the stove will have to be cleaned carefully (the riser, although slowly, still becomes overgrown with carbon deposits), after all, it is fragile.

5g contains a fairly large admixture of alumina. It is undesirable in construction sand, so it is discarded. But alumina is just right for the lining of the riser: the heat capacity of the mixture is minimal, and when sintered, it will also gain some strength. And they get the raw materials for free.

Note: The riser can also be lined with composition 5b, but, firstly, it costs money. Secondly, the work will take a lot of time - you will have to line it in layers, with the previous layer completely drying, otherwise the coating in the shell will dry for an inordinately long time and the inside will certainly crack.

Stage 0

First you need to make a bed for the stove, see fig. – a durable wooden trestle bed of the required configuration. Its frame is made of intersecting quarter-mortise logs (beam 100x100 mm) with a cell of at least 600x900 mm under the stove and at least 600x1200 mm under the stove bench itself. The oblong cells of the frame are oriented along the bed. The curved edges of the frame are brought to the contour using scraps of timber and boards.

Note: There is no need to raise the bed any higher; taking into account the power of the lining of the bed, it will be convenient.

The frame is covered with 40 mm tongue and groove boards. The joints of the deck boards should be oriented perpendicular to the long sides of the frame cells. The ends of the beams and boards protruding beyond the desired contour of the bench are sawn to shape immediately, but its outer contour remains free for now; it will be lined with plasterboard, etc. upon completion of the furnace construction.

Before assembly, parts are first impregnated with biocide, and the entire structure is impregnated twice with a water-polymer emulsion. The frame parts are fastened at the crosshairs with diagonal pairs of 6x90 mm confirmats, and the flooring boards are attached to the frame with longitudinal pairs of 6x60 mm confirmats, a pair in a board for each longitudinal joist.

Then, at the place where the stove is permanently installed, 4 mm mineral cardboard is laid on the floor with some margin for cutting along the contour, and the place above which the stove itself will be is additionally covered with a sheet of roofing iron; it needs to be cut to shape in advance, taking into account that the offset before the furnace fire must be at least 100 mm, this is enough for a rocket.

Now the bed is moved to its place. An exit to the outer chimney is immediately arranged, somewhere at the rear edge of the bed. Its lower edge should be 70-90 mm above level A of the furnace lining (see figure with the main diagram), i.e. 120-140 mm from the level of the bed flooring.

Stage 1

On the bed along the entire contour, a strong formwork of height A is made, according to the basic layout of the furnace (40-50 mm), with a smooth top edge. If the bed is adjacent to the wall, the formwork is brought up to the walls, and the level of its top is beaten along them with a cord. Then the formwork is filled with adobe and its surface is smoothed with a polish - a flat, smooth board with a rounded corner. If the formwork is incomplete and it is inconvenient to guide the far end of the glaze along the mark, you can still lean beacons made of strips of plywood against the walls; they are removed when the adobe dries, and the cracks are filled in.

Stage 2

While level A is drying, let's start making a drum from a cylinder, see fig. First, cut off its top so that a hole with a diameter of 200-220 mm is obtained (don’t forget to vent the remaining gas!), It is covered with a steel round 3-4 mm thick, this will be the hob. Then they make a cut 40-50 mm below the top welding seam of the cylinder, this is almost the lid.

A thin sheet metal skirt is welded to the lid. Its side seam also needs to be welded; it will take the skirt away from the seam connection. Cook at a direct current of 60 A with a 2-mm electrode. I must say that holding the arc in this mode is quite difficult; you need to be a fairly experienced welder. After installing the skirt, holes are drilled in it for M4-M5 bolts, 3-6 holes. evenly around the circumference, 20-25 mm from the bottom edge.

The third cut of the balloon is below the bottom seam, where the tube begins to turn into a rounded bottom. There is no need to remove the remnants of the balloon skirt, as this will only hold it more firmly in the stove. Now at the bottom of the tube we make a cutout for its outlet in the form of a horizontally elongated rectangle. Its height is 70 mm, and its width depends on the chosen riser pipe, see the inset at the top right of the main diagram.

The next operation is laying the sealing gasket. It requires a braided asbestos cord; woven shaggy twine is not suitable. The cord is glued with superglue or, better, “Moment”. Then the glue, of course, will burn out, but the gasket will stick to the residue, especially since the cover will have to be removed once a year, not every year.

Having laid the gasket, immediately, as soon as the glue has set, we put on the lid and place a load of 2-3 kg on it. Under load, we mark the location of the hole in the tube. After removing the cover, drill and tap the thread. Now we insert the tube into the inverted lid and measure the depth of the drum, this is necessary to clarify the height of the riser pipe. We separate the lid from the tube so that the gasket is not soaked through with glue and the cord does not lose its elasticity, stage 2 is completed.

Stage 3

Level A will take a week or two to dry, and during this time we will work on the combustion part of the furnace. Parts 1a, 1b and 1d from professional pipe 150x150 mm; 1D riser pipe is round. When marking workpieces, you must observe the distance indicated on the main diagram from the rear edge of the hopper, when viewed from the side of the blower, to the front edge of the drum. Within the specified limits, it is arbitrary, based on the location of the furnace and its design. The forward movement of the blower is also arbitrary, but, of course, within reasonable limits. There is no need to push the blower under the bunker either, the valve will be hot. The best option is to cut the blower flush with the front edge of the bunker, as in the diagram.

After cutting out the holes for the bunker and riser pipe, the first step is to weld in the partition of the secondary air channel 1b, at a height of 30 mm from the bottom of the firebox. A full seam is not needed, 2 clamps through the not yet welded rear end of the firebox, 2-4 through the hole for the hopper and 2 through the ash pan are enough. Material – sheet steel 1.5-2.5 mm.

Note: The tilt angle of the bunker can be within 45-90 degrees from the horizontal. But when tilted at 45 degrees, rough wood chips can get stuck, and if the bunker is vertical, then when adding fuel, your hand ends up dangerously close to the hot drum. Therefore, a slope of 60 degrees was chosen.

The rear edge of the air baffle should be flush with the front edge of the riser pipe hole. Its front edge should protrude outward by 20-25 mm. This shelf is needed to avoid littering when cleaning the stove: this design does not allow the use of a grate with a retractable ash pan, and the ash will have to be scraped into the tray; its edge is slipped under the shelf. However, the rocket furnace produces nothing but ash.

It is better to make the blower valve with a vertical stroke in grooves with flat springs; a rotary door will not ensure proper smooth adjustment of the furnace mode, and a throttle with a rotary damper is more difficult to make. The hopper lid is bent from galvanized steel. There is no need for complete tightness here, as long as it fits tightly.

When the combustion metal structure is ready (don’t forget to weld the riser pipe and weld the back of the flame pipe!), it is lined with a 5B compound in a layer of 10-12 mm, as shown in the diagram. Continuous coating is given only along the bottom. The top and sides of the blower from its front edge to the hopper are left free. Having been lined, they are placed to dry.

Dry by putting the blower part on the pole. At first, they inspect it regularly: if the coating slips, it is removed and a new portion is made from thicker clay and with less water. Do not rely on chance, this is a responsible operation!

Stage 4

The combustion part will dry out soon (2-3 days), and during this time it is quite possible to make formwork for insulation and lay its bottom layer, because Level A adobe has already dried enough to hold a small amount of weight. The design of the formwork is clear from Fig. The meaning of what is marked in red will become clear later. Formwork is made from boards or plywood 20-25 mm thick. There is no need to firmly fasten the parts, because... the formwork will then have to be dismantled. Thin wire brackets on the outside at the corners are sufficient; You can just cover it with tape.

The formwork is put in place with the outer edge of the front plank level with the edge of the bed and exactly along the axis of the future stove. You need to install it carefully, with measurements, otherwise the parts of the stove will not fit together later. You can prevent accidental displacement with thin pointed pegs, sticking them into the adobe from the outside. The beacons along which the bottom layer of insulation will be aligned are made of any material, but their height must be exactly equal to that of the front formwork strip.

Stage 5

The formwork is filled with mixture 5b to level B. The filling surface is leveled with a glaze along the beacons and the front strip.

Stage 6

While the insulating pad dries out and the combustion part dries out, we make the shell of the riser and under the drum. With the shell, everything is simple: either a piece of pipe, or we bend it from a thin (1-2 mm) sheet. Both, of course, are made of steel. If the shell is made of sheet metal, the seam can be folded; a perfect circle is not necessary.

Note: there is no need to make a shell below the riser pipe and then use clay (see below) to round the top of the riser. The stove works better if the gases flow into the lower part with a bend.

Under the drum, as can be seen in the diagram, is inclined. This is necessary for better flow turbulence in the secondary ash pan, see below. But if you thought: “Well, now we’ll cut out an ellipse within an ellipse!”, then you’re in vain. With a tilt of 10 degrees, the major axis of the ellipse turns out to be as much as 304.5 mm, but we need a smaller one, 5-7 degrees.

That is, we make the outer diameter of the hearth blank (steel sheet 2-3 mm) 4 mm smaller than the inner diameter of the drum, and the diameter of the cutout for the shell is 3 mm larger than its outer diameter, and it will fit like a native one. After installing the hearth, we will coat the cracks along the outer and inner contours (marked with green circles in the diagram) with 5d clay, bringing the sausages into the fillets simply with your finger.

Stage 7

We check whether level 5B is completely dry. This can be done by temporarily removing the front formwork strip. If not, we take a smoke break (sorry, we are struggling with nicotine. We drink juice.) for a day or two.

If it’s dry, we put the furnace part into the formwork; its coating is probably already dry. It is also necessary to place it exactly along the axis of the furnace, vertically and horizontally, with measurements: the drum and shell should ultimately be concentric plus or minus 2 mm, and the top of the secondary ash pan (see below) fit tightly under the upper edge of the drum outlet. We set the front edge of the blower flush with the outer edge of the formwork and, accordingly, the bed. At the same time, it will protrude from the insulation to the thickness of the formwork board, this is just enough to then smear it with adobe on the outside: the insulation used is effective, but also sensitive to air humidity.

We fix the exposed combustion part with pegs, just like the formwork. Let them remain in the mass of isolation, no big deal. Now we install additional front panels and fill the formwork to the top with mixture 5b, this is where we have reached the level G of the lining. It is no longer necessary to completely level it, so as not to accidentally catch the bunker protruding from the solution. It is enough to iron it with a polish, resting on the edges of the formwork, in the area where the drum is located, marked in pale gray on the formwork diagram. But here you need to level it until smooth.

Stage 8

We dry level G. This is also a responsible operation; you cannot rely on the microclimate of the room and conventional drying by natural evaporation to the outside; the oven will turn out bad and short-lived. It is necessary to create more or less stable conditions inside the drying mass.

This is done with a regular 40-60 W incandescent light bulb. It (turned on, of course) is inserted into the firebox so that the flask is under the riser pipe. You just need to provide some kind of mini trestle for the lamp socket so that the bulb does not touch the metal, otherwise the glass may burst. The top of level D will dry enough to withstand further operations while we make the secondary ash pan, see next.

Note: the light bulb will have to burn continuously for a total of approximately 30 days, taking into account further stages of drying. During this time, the 60-watt one will consume 24x30x0.06 = 43.2 kW/hour of electricity, and the 40-watt one will consume 28.8 kW/hour, which will cost 129 rubles respectively. 60 kopecks and 86 rub. 40 kopecks Whether such an expense is exorbitant is up to you to decide. However, on any side it is better to take 40-watt. Drying will take longer, but it will be of better quality and less sensitive to the quality of the raw materials.

Stage 9

We make a secondary ash pan, or just an ash pan for short, because... There is no primary in this furnace. Here it is similar in appearance to the same unit in the American prototypes of rocket stoves, but differs fundamentally from them.

In the Americans, an almost laminar flow of gases enters the ash pan through the wide outlet of the drum, but here it is twisted for deeper cleaning, see next. stage of the ash pit installation diagram. The cause of the vortices is the rotation of the Earth; more precisely, the Coriolis force caused by it, the same one that spins the water flowing from the bathtub.

Note: military-historical oddities. At the end of World War II, the Nazis developed the V-3, an ultra-long-range multi-chamber cannon with gradual acceleration of the projectile, to shell London. They made adits in the rock and assembled the entire system. And then it turned out that the Germans, famous for their thoroughness... forgot to take into account the rotation of the Earth! All the shells would have missed. So the V-3 never fired, causing only panic in Western intelligence agencies and a wave of myths that has reached this day. Later, Saddam Hussein floated around with the same idea. He was going to shoot from his desert at Berlin, Paris and the same London. His specialists have already calculated everything accurately and conducted successful experiments on small models. But, again, after everything it turned out that all modern technologies are not capable of creating precision-precision gun barrels 200-300 m long. In general, work loves a fool. Even if the fool is smart and knows a lot.

Drawings of the ash pit are shown in Fig. Dimension L is measured from point A (marked in red on the formwork diagram) along the perpendicular (red arrow there) to the edge of the bed. Dimension H is the sum of the heights of the formwork measured locally and the exit window already cut in the drum (70 mm if cut accurately). The bevel of the top of the ash pan back is arbitrary within reasonable limits, as long as it does not later stick out from under the coating of the drum with adobe.

The walled ash pan box is made of thin steel sheet or galvanized steel 0.6-1.2 mm. The front panel (face) is made of steel sheet 4-6 mm, because it can be exposed from the outside and has M5 threaded holes for attaching the cover. The cutout for the chimney bur is along the outer diameter of the existing metal flue; 150-180 mm is suitable for this stove. Its location is arbitrary, you just need to observe dimensions A, B and C on the drawing of the ash pit. All parts except the hog are connected by welding with a continuous seam in the same mode as for the drum cover skirt. For the addition of a hog, see below.

The cover of the cleaning hole measuring 180x180 mm is also made of steel with a thickness of 4-6 mm. The sealing gasket underneath is made of mineral cardboard. Mounting bolts – from M5x8 to M5x15 with hex heads. Bolts with any splines should not be used: the inside of the ash pan becomes overgrown with a thin layer of dense soot. The thickness of its layer will soon stabilize, but the bolts to remove the cover have to be unscrewed with a socket wrench with a crank.

Note: It is not advisable to use a hinged door with a latch - it will not provide a seal forever. You won’t notice it right away, but the stove’s appetite will increase and it will begin to become overgrown with smoke inside. And you have to open the ash pan for cleaning at most once a year if the stove is heated with room-dry wood.

Stage 10

We must assume that while we were fiddling with the ash pan, level G had already dried up. You can check by temporarily removing the formwork wall, as well as level B. If ready, install the drum and ash pan.

Replace the drum tube without the lid. We make sure that it and the riser pipe are concentric, and also that the outlet window is in the right place, see the inset at the top right in the general diagram of the furnace and the diagram in Fig..

We put a little mixture 5b inside the drum and use a spatula to form a wedge from it with an inclination of 5-7 degrees, converging to the outlet window. Now we put it in place under it and press it into the solution with a stick. We select the mortar from the cutout under the shell, otherwise you won’t be able to install the shell; the mortar is on crushed stone. Next, we install the shell, turning it slightly. We coat the gaps along the external and internal contours with 5d clay, as described earlier.

Stage 11

There is no need to wait for the insulation under the floor to dry; we immediately line the riser. We fill the shell layer by layer, 5-7 layers in total, with a 5g compound (home-dug sand or thin sandy loam). We compact each layer with a rolling pin with an even end and spray it with a spray bottle until a crust forms. Not reaching 5-6 cm to the top, we form a plug from 5d clay. When it dries, thin cracks form between it, the pipe and the shell, but that’s okay: when the furnace is fired, they will soon be overgrown with soot from the density and strength of the concrete.

Stage 12

Immediately after installing the drum, install the ash pan; We will close the cleaning hole with a lid later. Installing it is simple: on the lower and large side surfaces we apply a layer of 5d clay 2-3 mm thick. We insert the ash pan into place, press and press down. Then we coat the contour of the drum output window (also known as the input ash pan) on the outside with the same 5d clay. Smear the sausages squeezed inside into fillets with your finger. Don’t lose sight of this: the edge of the hearth protrudes into the ash pan as a narrow segmental shelf; a fillet must also be formed under it. In general, the transition from the drum to the ash pan must be sealed both inside and outside (green oval on the general diagram of the furnace).

Stage 13

If the level G of the insulation has not yet completely dried, we wait for it to dry. To speed it up, the formwork can already be removed. If yes, we also remove the formwork (drying continues, the light in the firebox is still shining!) and apply insulation with a 5B solution to level B. We apply it without formwork, by hand. Manually, without much precision, we form a semicircular arch at level B.

Stage 14

Without waiting for level B to dry, we make formwork along the contour of the bed, as when forming level A, but already to level D. Now we clarify its value according to measurement data: above the upper edge of the hole for the bur in the ash pan there should be at least 80 mm. It is also undesirable to do more than 120 mm; the heat transfer of the stove after heating will be sluggish. For brevity, we will call the new level G G1.

Stage 15

We fill the new formwork with adobe to the bottom edge of the hole for the bur in the ash pan, on one side. On the other - to the lower edge of the exit to the outer chimney. We level it roughly with our hands, but we need to make sure that there are no dips and, accordingly, U-shaped sections of the hog. If you read carefully at the beginning, you will understand that we will be able to lift the hog from the ash pit to the chimney by 10-30 mm. It is necessary for uniform heating of the bed, but downward sloping areas of the hog are undesirable in any case.

Stage 16

We stretch the prepared corrugation to its full length. We insert one end of it into the ash pan by 15-20 mm and flare it from the inside with a flat screwdriver through the cleaning door. We coat the outer contour of the hog's input into the ash pan with 5d clay, as already described.

Next, we cover the beginning of the hog, counting from the ash pan, by 15-25 cm with adobe; it will keep the corrugation from being pulled out during the following operations. Now we lay the hog in the bed with bends, but not coming closer than 100 mm to any edge. As you lay, lightly press down, pressing lightly into the adobe. Having laid it, we insert the far end of the corrugation into the exit hole into the chimney and, again, coat the contour with 5d clay.

Stage 17

We manually cover the hog with adobe so that there are no gaps or niches under the bottom of the corrugation. Then we fill the formwork with adobe and smooth its surface with a polish. If the adobe is thick, heavy, and made from oily clay, you can immediately form roundings on the upper corners, see the inset at the bottom right of the main diagram. It is convenient to do this with a strip of galvanized steel, bent to a quarter of a circle with a trough. If the adobe is light, you will have to dust it with a milling cutter or circle around the stone during final finishing.

Stage 18

We constantly put the ash pan and drum lids in place. The light in the firebox is still on, drying out! We attach the drum cover with screws with conical heads: when tightened tightly, they will tightly compress the gasket between the cover and the tube.

Stage 19

We form the adobe coating of the drum, as already said: 1/3 of its top remains free, and counting down from half its height, the adobe layer should be no thinner than 100 mm. As for the rest, as God pleases, here the rocket stove will tolerate any design.

Stage 20

After drying is complete (about 2 weeks), remove the formwork and round off the remaining corners, if necessary. The last operations before kindling are to paint the drum with heat-resistant enamel at 450 degrees (750 degrees is much more expensive), and cover the stove bench with acrylic varnish in 2 layers; 2nd after complete drying of the 1st.

The varnish will not prevent the stove from breathing; the breath will flow through the bed covering. But, firstly, the varnish will prevent the adobe from collecting dust. Secondly, it will protect it from accidental moisture. Thirdly, it will give the stove the noble appearance of glazed clay.

Final stage: rocket launch

In a dry oven, we put the ash valve in the grooves without closing it (the light bulb is no longer there, of course), close the hopper lid and heat it with paper, straw, shavings, etc., all the time feeding fuel through the ash vent. When the bed feels at least a little warmer to the touch, add more light fuel and load the standard fuel into the bunker. Having waited until the stove hums quite loudly, we close the vent “to a whisper.” That's it, the rocket stove with a stove bench is ready! Now - off to the start! That is, in bed.

Finally

There is a direction in balloon-stove creativity that is still being developed only by smokers, and then somehow: the construction of stoves from 2 or more cylinders. And from the point of view of heating engineering, its prospects are quite serious.

Old non-autonomous diving equipment was divided into 2 classes based on the number of helmet attachment points: three-bolt with a soft suit for working at depths of up to 60 m and heavy, hard 12-bolt deep-sea. The profession of a shallow-water diver had a completely official name - three-bolt diver. In this regard, I wonder what hidden meaning the trolls and goblins of the Runet would see in the name, well, let’s say: “Society of Multi-Cylinder Stove Makers”?

Optimizing heating costs for a country house is a very pressing task for its owner: what to use as fuel, which heating unit is the best. Homemade stoves made from gas cylinders are very popular, allowing the use of very cheap, sometimes just waste, fuel. In this case, heating costs are minimal.

Making a heating unit with your own hands from a cylinder

A thrifty owner carefully insulates his home, trying to reduce heating costs. In addition, there are a number of objects that need to be heated periodically: workshops, garages, outbuildings. It is necessary to regularly heat greenhouses or winter gardens.

Therefore, home craftsmen are constantly developing and implementing additional heating units of various designs. The most popular are products made from gas cylinders. The reason for this is the convenient shape and almost ideal proportions and characteristics of the material.

The efficiency of cylinder stoves reaches 85–90%, which is a very high figure in comparison with homemade stoves of other forms. The rounded shape is ideal for intensive pyrolysis of fuel and allows you to arrange openings for smoke exit and oxygen supply to the combustion zone at the lowest cost.

A simple and effective gas cylinder stove will last a long time

What is a cylinder stove?

A classic representative of heating units from an old cylinder is the well-known “potbelly stove”. It received this name for its extraordinary gluttony, consuming large amounts of fuel. But its main advantage is fast ignition and heating. This is especially important in extreme situations, when for some reason the operation of the main heating stops.

In the design of such a furnace, the cylinders can be located in both vertical and horizontal positions. Heat transfer occurs through the surface of the furnace and can be significantly increased by welding metal ribs onto the surface. In addition, you can utilize the heat of flue gases by passing them through a pipe embedded in a container of water. Water heated in this way is used in a heating circuit or used in the household through an indirect heating boiler.

Pyrolysis furnaces occupy a special place in cylinder heating devices. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of fuel that occurs with minimal access to oxygen. At temperatures above 300 degrees, the fuel in the furnace does not simply burn through the oxidation process, but decomposes into gas fractions, which give higher temperatures when ignited.

Photo gallery: types of stoves with a cylinder body

What cylinders can be used

Not every gas cylinder is suitable for making a furnace body. For example, it is not recommended to use cylinders made of composite materials. Despite its strength, the composite does not tolerate high temperatures.

A 5-liter container cannot serve as a furnace body due to its small size, but it is successfully used to make containers for liquid fuel.

You can use cylinders with a volume of 12 and 27 liters. They make excellent thermal units with a capacity of 2–3 kilowatts and 5–7 kilowatts, respectively.

Most often, stove bodies are made from cylinders with a capacity of 50 liters. Its dimensions - diameter 30 centimeters and height 85 - are optimal for installing a heating unit. A stove of this volume is capable of efficiently heating a small country house.

A 50-liter propane cylinder is best suited for the body of a homemade stove

Oxygen cylinders for furnaces are rarely used. The size ratio is not entirely convenient for the installation of a firebox, and the significant height makes such a unit unstable.

Types of long-burning stoves from a gas cylinder

There are many options for making stoves from cylinders. Each home master makes his own changes to them, according to his capabilities and understanding of the process. At the same time, long-burning pyrolysis furnaces are the most popular. In such designs, the combustion time of the combustion material varies from 12 hours to a day or more, which can significantly reduce fuel consumption.

Furnaces with conical fuel stacking

A popular type of pyrolysis furnace is a design with conical fuel stacking. In such a furnace, a pin is installed along the axis of the firebox from the grate. When loading, a wooden or tin cone is placed on it with the base up. The firebox is filled from above with sawdust, shavings or wood chips. In this case, the combustion material must be compacted well so that the filling is as dense as possible.

When fuel is loaded, the cone must be pulled out and the lid closed. The fuel is ignited through a ash pit with a small amount of wood chips or a tablet of dry fuel. As soon as the fuel burns well, the ash door must be closed, limiting the flow of air into the firebox. Then the fuel simply smolders, but this is enough to reach the pyrolysis temperature. Smoke is discharged through a pipe in the upper part of the housing. With this design, “samovar” water heating tanks are also used for a radiator heating system or heating water in an indirect heating boiler. It is convenient to use a gas or oxygen cylinder as a heating container, passing the chimney pipe along the axis of the vessel. A fitting for hot water is welded in the upper part, and for return flow in the lower part. Circulation occurs naturally without the use of a pump, which makes the heating system energy independent.

The burning time of one bookmark is 12–16 hours.

Sawdust should be compacted as tightly as possible

Liquid fuel pyrolysis furnaces

These thermal units use fuels such as diesel, diesel fuel or waste oil. The use of other energy sources is considered exotic due to their high cost.

Consider the option of using waste oil as fuel. To make a simple oven you need:

Install a pipe with a diameter of about 100 millimeters in the upper part of the cylinder.
About 30 holes with a diameter of 10 millimeters need to be drilled in the walls of the pipe.
Place a cup-shaped container with a diameter of 120–140 millimeters with sides 25–30 millimeters high at the bottom of the cylinder.
A tube with a diameter of 10 millimeters with oil and a fuel supply regulator is connected to the container through the wall of the cylinder.
Combustion products are removed through a side pipe in the upper part of the housing.

Ignition of a cold furnace is carried out in the following order:

Open the tap on the fuel tank and pour used oil into the bowl approximately to the middle of the walls.
You need to pour up to 50 grams of gasoline on top of the oil. Having a lower density, it will remain on the surface.
Light the gasoline. As the temperature rises, the oil boils and begins to release vapors, which also ignite. The air flow draws the flame into the perforated pipe.
With a further increase in temperature, fuel pyrolysis occurs and the combustion intensity increases. Flue gases are removed through the upper chamber through the side pipe. The temperature in the combustion chamber is such that the pipe heats up red-hot, and from it the furnace body quickly heats up.
Under these circumstances, it is advisable to partially cool the stove gases in the chimney using a samovar-type water heating tank.

Despite all the positive qualities of such a thermal unit, including simplicity of design and low cost of fuel, there is a significant drawback. In the room where such a stove operates, there is a constant smell of burning petroleum products. Therefore, the structure must be moved outside the residential or industrial premises.

An old cylinder and used oil will effectively heat the house

Video: stove using waste oil from a gas cylinder

Long-burning solid fuel stoves

The following types of fuel are used in solid fuel appliances to produce heat:

firewood;
wood processing waste in the form of sawdust, shavings, scraps, chips;
peat;
coal.

There are known cases of using used tires for heating after they have been shredded.

One of the most popular designs of this type is rightfully considered a homemade stove with the funny name “bubafonya”. It can be made with minimal labor and materials. The basis for production is a body made of a gas cylinder with a capacity of 50 liters.

The fuel for such a unit can be technological chips, crushed remains of branches and twigs, sawdust and shavings. The only requirement for it is that the humidity should not exceed 12%, which corresponds to the standards for fuel from wood-burning stoves. The burning time of one bookmark is from 14 to 24 hours, depending on the density of its placement. The fuel is ignited after installing the weight and lid. The ribs on the load form channels for air, allowing the fuel to burn and decompose into pyrolysis gases. Gases enter the upper chamber, where they burn at high temperature.

As the fuel burns, the piston moves down

Slow burning pyrolysis furnace “Bubafonya”

It is impossible to describe or simply list all the designs of stoves that can be made from cylinders, but it is advisable to consider in detail the “bubafonya” design. This model can be made at home with your own hands.

Safety

Before describing the design of the furnace and its manufacturing technology, let us pay attention to safety issues. We will talk about preparing the cylinder itself for processing. Despite its dense structure, the inner surface of the metal is riddled with a network of microscopic cracks. During long-term operation of the container for its intended purpose, a considerable amount of gas condensate and its sediment accumulates inside these defects. Such a substance may be explosive and is in no way beneficial to health. Before you start working with the cylinder, you need to fill it with water and let it sit for 2-3 days. It is better to perform the operation away from home. When the liquid is drained, the reasons for this recommendation will become clear - it has an extremely unpleasant and strong odor.

Video: how to safely disassemble a gas cylinder

Tools and materials for making the Bubafonya stove

To make such a heating unit with your own hands, you will need:

Table: required materials and tools

Name	Purpose	Notes
Cylinder for furnace body	Manufacturing of the main product	boo
Steel rod with a diameter of 10 mm	Making handles for the oven lid and body	From waste
Angles 45x45, any profile, pipe cuttings	For support legs	From waste
Bulgarian	Cutting blank parts, cutting the cylinder during the manufacture of the body
Steel sheet 6–10 millimeters thick	Making a pancake
Steel strip 40x4 millimeters	Manufacturing of support ribs
Cement, sand, gravel and fireclay bricks	Making the furnace support base
Reinforcing bars	Foundation reinforcement
Trowel, shovel, container for mixing the solution	Pouring the foundation
Welding machine for working with ferrous metals and electrodes for it	Making welded joints when assembling the furnace	Possible to rent
Electric drill no less than 0.7 kW, set of metal drills	Drilling holes
Measuring tool	Taking measurements and marking
Locksmith's corner	Positioning of parts during assembly, quality control
Kerner	Hole marking
Files flat and semicircular	Removing sharp edges and burrs, adjusting dimensions
Marker black	Marking production
Individual protection means	Goggles, welder's mask, face shield, mittens, gloves, special shoes, rags.

In addition to the above, you will need some tools from a standard locksmith kit: a hammer, pliers, etc.

The procedure for making a “bubafonya” stove

The advantage of this model is that the cylinder body is subject to the least intervention. The manufacturing procedure for the Bubafonya stove is as follows:

Separate the head dome part of the cylinder using a grinder.
Make a hole in it along the axis with a diameter of about 80 millimeters. Since the dome part will subsequently be used as a cover, two rod handles need to be welded to it. The cap will have to be removed each time fuel is loaded.
The cut off top of the cylinder is a part for making the lid
Make a hole of approximately the same diameter in the bottom of the cylinder. Its purpose is periodic cleaning of combustion residues. This hole must be closed with a reliable flap.
Approximately 5 centimeters from the top edge of the body you need to make a hole for the chimney pipe. Typically this is a pipe with a diameter of up to 15 centimeters with a wall of at least 4 millimeters.
At a distance of approximately 10–12 centimeters from the bottom of the cylinder, drill three holes with a diameter of 10 millimeters. They are located around the circle at an angle of 120 degrees relative to each other. Rods with a diameter of 9.0–9.5 millimeters are inserted into the holes so that they protrude inward by 20–25 millimeters. From the outside, the rods must be welded to the body.
Cut a circle from a sheet four millimeters thick with a diameter two millimeters smaller than the internal size of the case. Drill 20–25 holes with a diameter of 10 millimeters in it. This part will play the role of a grate.
Install the part onto the protrusions of the pins.
Next, you need to make a piston, which will also serve as a load. The piston consists of several simple parts. The first is a pipe with a diameter of about 80 millimeters with a wall of up to four millimeters. It is allowed to use electric-welded straight-seam pipes. The second part is a pancake, in the center of which you need to cut a hole equal to the diameter of the pipe. The pipe is welded to the pancake at a right angle coaxially.
The ribs on the pancake provide air for fuel pyrolysis
Ribs from a strip about 40 millimeters wide or a corner of the appropriate size are welded to the lower surface of the ring. They are located from the center to the edge of the pancake. Number of ribs - 4–6 pieces.
A damper must be installed at the upper end of the pipe in order to be able to completely block the hole in the pipe.
Flue gas outlet and damper for shutting off the air supply

Procedure for placing fuel and igniting the stove

The sequence of actions is as follows:

Fuel preparation consists of grinding large fragments into industrial chips (5x20 mm) and mixing them with sawdust and shavings.
Pour fuel into the firebox; in this case, it is necessary to compact it, achieving the greatest density of the mass.
Lightly moisten the surface of the fuel filler with lighter fluid.
Install the piston into the furnace body with the pancake down, and fully open the damper on the pipe.
Close the lid.
To ignite the fuel, take a small rag soaked in ignition fluid and lower it into the pipe. If you just throw a match there, it will go out along the way.

Photo gallery: how to light a “bubafonya” stove

When the fuel ignites, the furnace heats up. Combustion air will flow through the pipe from top to bottom. When the temperature reaches 300 degrees, the process of fuel decomposition begins. Pyrolysis gases penetrate into the upper compartment and ignite there. From this point on, you can completely close the valve on the pipe.

The combustion process occurs as follows:

After closing the damper, air enters the firebox through the slot gap between the pipe and the edges of the hole in the lid. The combustion of pyrolysis gases creates a sufficient temperature for the decomposition of subsequent layers of fuel.
The ribs on the bottom of the pancake do not allow it to sink onto the fuel layer and stop the combustion. Through the cavities between them, gases enter the upper chamber.
Thus, layer-by-layer consumption of combustible material occurs with the formation of a large amount of heat.

The burning of one bookmark continues for up to a day or more.

Such stoves cope no less successfully with fuels such as peat or pellets.

Heat recovery occurs by heating the furnace body. However, it cannot be complete. It is advisable to use a samovar method of extracting energy for heating through a radiator heating system.

Video: review of the Bubafonya stove: design, kindling, advantages and disadvantages

Calculation of the main parameters of the Bubafonya stove

The efficient operation of a furnace of this design directly depends on the combination of many indicators and their optimal interaction.

Furnace wall thickness

Based on experience in operating long-burning furnaces, the optimal wall thickness is considered to be 4–5 millimeters. This is exactly the parameter that a fifty-liter cylinder has. If the wall is thinner, heat transfer is disrupted and the body burns out quite quickly.

Calculation of pancake parameters

The gap between the pancake and the inner wall of the cylinder is determined by the relation s = 0.5D. That is, with a diameter of 300 mm, this value will be 300 x 0.05 = 15 millimeters. It should be noted that compliance with this parameter is very important. With a larger gap, the fuel near the walls will burn more slowly, as a result of which the pancake may fall into the filling and combustion will stop.

As established in practice, the height of the pressure ribs is 40 millimeters.

Pancake thickness

This parameter is inversely proportional to the diameter of the housing. That is, the larger the diameter, the thinner the part should be. There are tables of this dependence on the Internet; for our case, this parameter is 6–10 millimeters. Exact data and calculation methods are not provided, but it is quite enough to follow the published recommendations.

Chimney cross-section size

The minimum permissible cross-section of the chimney is determined by the amount of energy released per hour of operation of the stove, which is determined by the ratio S = 1.75E (kW/hour). Here E = mq, where m is the mass of fuel in the load, q is the specific energy of the fuel burning over an hour, table value. The necessary information is given in the table.

Table: data for calculating the cross-section of the chimney

Having made the necessary calculations, we obtain the minimum required chimney diameter for the Bubafonya stove of 150 millimeters.

Air intake pipe size

Preparing for assembly, choosing an installation location

Before starting work on assembling the stove, it is necessary to prepare the installation site. After pouring the foundation, it will take time for the concrete to harden. During this period, you can slowly make the stove itself. The foundation can be used no earlier than 7 days after pouring. On top of the concrete base you need to lay a platform of refractory bricks.

A high-quality foundation is necessary for safe operation of the furnace.

When choosing a place to install the stove, you need to consider the following circumstances:

the distance to the nearest walls made of flammable material should be more than one meter; if there is no such place, the walls must be additionally protected from heating with an asbestos sheet 8–10 millimeters thick; install a sheet of galvanized metal 0.5–0.7 millimeters thick on top of it;
the chimney in the vertical part should not fall on the supporting beam;
if an external chimney with an outlet through the wall is used, the length of the horizontal part should not be more than one meter; otherwise, you need to make a chimney with a slope of 45 degrees.

It is better to prepare parts and assemble the stove indoors, for example, in a garage. This will save your neighbors from unnecessary noise when working with an angle grinder and from the sparkle of the electric welding arc. The room must be equipped with exhaust ventilation. If welding is carried out outdoors, the work area must be protected with protective screens.

Furnace modernization

Improving the operating parameters of the furnace is associated with an increase in its heat transfer. For this purpose, additional heat exchange surfaces are used on the furnace body. Such parts can be made from various metal profiles, including strips, angles, and profile pipes. The choice of material depends on what is available from leftovers.

Additional heat exchangers made of metal profiles increase the efficiency of the device

Additional heating surfaces can be installed not only on the outer surface, but also inside the firebox, which allows you to intensively heat the air in the room. A negative result of such a solution will be oxygen burnout at high temperatures.

Features of operation of a pyrolysis furnace

The main difference between pyrolysis furnaces is the ability to use a wide variety of fuels. In solid fuel stoves, it is possible to burn not only traditional flammable substances, but also rubber, plastic and other materials that are strictly not recommended for burning conventional stoves.

This feature is associated with complete decomposition of the fuel and secondary combustion of the resulting gases in a separate chamber. After this, only carbon dioxide and water vapor remain in the smoke emissions. No harmful emissions into the atmosphere occur during pyrolysis.

But when using such fuel at the ignition stage, a persistent smell of burnt rubber remains in the room. Therefore, such heating units must be installed outside residential premises.

Maintenance of pyrolysis furnaces

Pyrolysis ovens require much less attention compared to conventional devices. This is due to the fact that there are practically no solid particles in the flue gases that form soot. The presence of water vapor in the exhaust determines the formation of condensation on the walls of the chimney. Therefore, it is necessary to install a condensate collector with a drain tap, which must be used regularly as it accumulates.

This statement is true for perfectly balanced stoves, where complete decomposition of the fuel occurs. But a breakthrough of conventional furnace gases cannot be ruled out, so regular inspection of the internal surface of the chimney is necessary. If necessary, it must be cleaned. Inspections are carried out at least twice a year.

Long-burning stoves must use an insulated stainless steel pipe.

Furnaces using waste oil must be cleaned regularly as carbon deposits and slag deposits form in the fuel bowl. In the first fuel combustion chamber, normal combustion occurs with the release of solid particles. The design of the furnace allows you to visually monitor the condition of this unit.

There are no small details when making a heating stove yourself. Each circumstance must be carefully weighed and thought out. Otherwise, all efforts will be in vain. I wish you success!

Stoves such as potbelly stoves are especially popular - users are captivated by their extreme simplicity. And to make them yourself, it’s enough to find a suitable case made of durable metal. A long-burning potbelly stove using wood from a gas cylinder, the same one used to store propane, has good technical characteristics. To assemble it you will need the simplest tools and a welding machine.

Let's see how to assemble a potbelly stove from a propane tank.

What are the benefits of potbelly stoves?

To begin with, it would be nice to understand the features and advantages of potbelly stoves. The main advantage is extreme simplicity. If you have a gas cylinder available, then the assembly can be completed in a matter of hours. The main thing is to have a welding machine, which is impossible to do without. A cylinder, a door, a chimney pipe - and an excellent homemade heating unit is ready to receive the first portions of firewood to give its owners warmth.

Omnivorous - a stove made from a gas cylinder is suitable for burning any type of fuel. This can be firewood, compressed eurowood, wooden waste or pellets. Throw into it everything that can ignite and burn - a potbelly stove is undemanding when it comes to the quality of fuel. The main thing is to let it flare up, and then you can burn anything in its interior.

Affordability – a potbelly stove made from a cylinder is extremely cheap. You can use a new cylinder for it or get an old one from somewhere. If you live in a rural area where there is no gas main, then there will be no problems with the search. And if you cannot get a cylinder, adapt sheet iron, an old barrel or any other suitable container under the potbelly stove.

Other features and advantages of potbelly stoves assembled from gas cylinders:

You can adapt any battered, but more or less whole, gas cylinder to a potbelly stove.

Versatility in use - if you need a stove for a bathhouse or for a garage, use a potbelly stove. Its production will not take much time, and you will have an excellent heating unit at your disposal;
A potbelly stove made from a cylinder does not require special maintenance - you only need to periodically clean the ash pan and check the condition of the chimney;
Easy to install - simply mount the stove on any suitable base or weld metal legs to it;
Ease of modernization - a cylinder stove can be made more efficient if you use some technical tricks;
Relatively high heat transfer - thermal power, depending on the volume of the stove, will be from 2 to 7 kW (heated area from 20 to 70 sq. m);
A stove made from a cylinder is characterized by stable operation in any conditions - you just need to build a decent chimney with a height of at least 3-4 meters;
Easy self-assembly - if you know how to work with a tool, then after 2-3 hours of work you will have the most effective potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder at your disposal;
Several modifications for consumers to choose from - the stove body can be vertical or horizontal, large or small volume.

There are also some disadvantages. The first of them is its unsightly appearance. But if you put in some effort, you will be able to build a nice, compact potbelly stove with good appearance. The second drawback is not the highest efficiency. For such units it is about 70%, but this figure can be improved by implementing afterburning of combustion products with secondary air.

All the main ways to increase efficiency will be discussed in the corresponding section of our review.

Self-assembly

Let's see how to make a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder. Our step-by-step instructions will tell you about all the stages of this simple process. First, you need to decide on the design - the gas cylinder in the design of the potbelly stove can be located vertically or horizontally. Here it all depends on the availability of free space, but the horizontal arrangement is still more convenient in terms of loading firewood of increased length (and ensuring long-term burning).

Regardless of how the body is located, the stove itself will consist of three parts:

The main body - it is also the combustion chamber and a container for ash (the ash pan will be located in the lower part);
Doors - through one, firewood is loaded, and through the second, coals and ash are removed;
Chimney - combustion products are removed through it.

There will also be a grate inside.

A homemade long-burning stove made from a gas cylinder is a unit of increased volume. Therefore, you have to find the largest cylinder. If the volume is too small, you will have to constantly add more and more firewood.

All dimensions and indicators are given as an example. Depending on your needs, you can make the desired changes based on this drawing.

You can make a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder without a drawing - we will use the illustration given as an example. The ash pan door will have dimensions of 20x10 cm, the loading door will have dimensions of 30x20 cm. To cut these holes, use an angle grinder (grinder). Cut carefully, as the cut pieces of metal will serve as doors.

Next, carefully cut off the upper part where the faucet is located - this is where the chimney of our potbelly stove will come out. We weld a pipe with a diameter of 70-90 mm and a height of 10 cm here, after which we proceed to welding the grate. The grill itself can be made from pieces of metal or reinforcement. After that, we attach it inside the gas cylinder using welding.

Since you will be working in a confined space inside a gas cylinder, be sure to take safety precautions.

The next stage is preparing the legs. The easiest way for them is to choose a piece of thick reinforcement. We cut the reinforcement into pieces of suitable length and weld it to the bottom of our potbelly stove. Now we proceed to installing the doors - simple metal hinges are used for this. Try to weld the doors as carefully as possible to minimize the gaps between them and the body. If necessary, weld pieces of metal around the perimeter for maximum sealing.

Do not forget to weld metal locks to the doors of the potbelly stove from a gas cylinder - they will not be difficult to make yourself from sheet iron.

Installation and first launch

Our step-by-step instructions will help you quickly assemble a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder with your own hands. There is nothing complicated here, and all operations are divided into three main stages:

There is nothing difficult about working with an angle grinder. But if you doubt your abilities, then it is better to entrust this process to a person with experience.

Preparing a gas cylinder - you need to unscrew the tap, drain the gas condensate from there, then fill it with water so that all the gas comes out from inside. There is also a recommendation to let the water sit for a day. Another recommendation is to add potassium permanganate to the water. Next, the liquid is drained, and the cylinder can be safely cut. If you are unsure of the results of flushing, consult with knowledgeable people;
Cutting a gas cylinder - you need to cut out the doors and the hole for the chimney. Here you can do something more cunning - cut a hole for the chimney not in the upper end part, but in the back, closer to the top. A larger hole is cut out in place of the valve - the hob is welded here;
Installation of the grate and installation of legs - for this it is recommended to use reinforcement with a thickness of at least 12 mm.

The last stage is installation and launch.

A potbelly stove made from a gas cylinder must be installed on a non-combustible base - this can be a concrete or brick pedestal. It is highly advisable to lay a sheet of metal under it. This is necessary to ensure fire safety. Now we can start launching - we install and secure the chimney, and start chopping wood.

We place small chips on the grate, after which we proceed to larger firewood. Do not try to light a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder using flammable liquids - an explosion or a powerful bang may occur. In the event of an explosion or bang, a gas cylinder will survive, but it can stun people.

If the wood is too wet, use special stove ignition products. We set fire to small chips, watch the flame - the ash pan door (which also serves as an ash pit) is closed. As soon as the flames consume all the wood, close the firebox and open the ash pan. A craving will arise that will make the fire burn more cheerfully. Wait until the room becomes warm, adjust the draft level according to your preferences.

Increased efficiency

We move on to the last stage - the modernization of our potbelly stove, assembled from a gas cylinder. The simplicity of the design of this furnace leads to its not the highest efficiency. Our task is to prevent heat from escaping into the chimney or going into the walls. Therefore, we will take some measures.

Heat Reflection

To begin with, it would be a good idea to think about the installation location - there should be no windows or doors nearby, it is advisable to mount a potbelly stove from a gas cylinder somewhere in a corner that is not blown by all the winds. And then you need to take a sheet of galvanized iron and beat this very corner with it - the radiated heat will be almost completely directed into the room, and will not go into the walls. This is the easiest way to upgrade.

Create convection

A potbelly stove from a gas cylinder can be turned into some kind of convector. This is done in two ways:

An extended chimney will allow more heat to remain indoors rather than escaping outside.

Using a sheet of metal, we create a kind of jacket around the gas cylinder and attach it to the stove body;
Using a U-shaped metal profile, we cut it into pieces and weld it vertically to the cylinder.

The essence of the procedure is simple - cold air will be sucked into the gap between the sheet and the balloon or into the gaps formed by the profile, which will heat up and go to the ceiling. This will create natural convection in the room, which means heat will be spent more efficiently.

Shirt made of stone

If you have a brick or stone available, you can create a kind of shirt around the potbelly stove from a gas cylinder. The materials are not laid flush against the metal, but leaving a small air gap. Thermal radiation will warm up the stone (or brick), as a result of which it will begin to give off accumulated heat. If the flame suddenly goes out, the masonry will retain the heat accumulated earlier. Convection also forms between the potbelly stove and the masonry.

Some people line potbelly stoves made from gas cylinders with bricks or stones. The result is quite attractive and efficient stoves.

Horizontal pipe

Another way to prevent heat from escaping into the atmosphere is to trap it indoors. To do this, you should slightly modernize the chimney. The essence of the procedure is to create a long horizontal section that will transfer heat into the room. For example, in the case of a bathhouse, a small country house or a garage, its length can be 3-4 meters (in addition to the vertical section). Having passed through the pipe, the heat will mostly transfer to its metal, after which it will enter the room. The combustion products will enter the vertical section already noticeably cooled.

Pyrolysis supplement

The incoming secondary air helps to burn out the combustible gases when the stove is properly heated.